The Budget war on phoenix activity – DPN liability of directors will extend to unpaid GST liabilities of their companies (but which GST liabilities?)

Tax Month - May 2018

Phoenixing property developers, were a sufficient problem, that Parliament recently legislated a regime that requires purchasers, of certain types of real property, to withhold a GST amount, from the purchase price, and remit it to the ATO. (This applies to certain problem areas: ‘new residential premises’ and ‘potential residential land’ – under new s14-250 of…

Measures to target ‘illegal phoenixing’ – including extending the DPN regime to GST (to make directors liable), restricting ‘related creditors’ voting rights, withholding refunds when returns outstanding

Tax Month - May 2018

In the 2018 Federal Budget, the Government announced it will reform the corporations and tax laws and provide the regulators with additional tools to assist them to deter and disrupt illegal phoenix activity. Illegal phoenixing involves the deliberate misuse of the corporate form by allowing a company to run up debts, the company does not…